Английская грамматика: I wish / If only

Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.

There is a wonderful story by author James Howe called "I Wish I Were A Butterfly." In this story a cricket is not happy with who he is. He considers himself very ugly. He wishes that he were a butterfly because he says that there is always beauty in a butterfly. When he meets other insects along the way they tell him that wishing is a waste of time. Until one special friend goes with him to the water's edge, he looks back at his reflection and realizes to his surprise that the ugliness had faded. Finally he is happy being a cricket. It’s a beautiful story about finding the beauty within ourselves. 

Look, what some children wished…

Deniel: I wish I were an engineer because it helps other trains; Travis: I wish I were "Robin" because I could save people.
 

 















Ashe: I wish I were a Sleeping Beauty because she is beautiful; Charlotte: I wish I were an ice-cream cone because they're yummy.



WISH +PAST PERFECT TENSE

When we want to talk about situations IN THE PAST that we are not happy about or actions that we regret, we use the verb to wish followed by THE PAST PERFECT:

I wish I had done more travelling in my youth.
I wish I had learned what the options were before entering university.

Again, note that we 'go one tense back'. We are talking about past regrets and dissatisfactions, but using THE PAST PERFECT, not PAST SIMPLE.
You can often hear people say: ‘If only I had known THEN what I know NOW...’ Unfortunately, history doesn’t have subjunctive mood…  Adrian Savage, an English writer and a retired business executive, has listed the 12 things he wishes he had known when he was younger.

So HE WISHES HE HAD KNOWN THAT:

1) Most of it doesn’t matter. There are only a few things that truly count for a happy life. I wish I had known to concentrate on those and ignore the rest.
2) The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts.
3) Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever.
4) Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide.
5) If people complain that you’re too fond of going your own way and aren’t fitting in, you must be on the right track.
6) If you make your work your life, you’re making your life into hard work. Only idiots live to work.
7) The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip.
8) Trying to please other people is largely a futile activity. Those who love you will probably love you regardless, and they are the ones whose opinions are worth caring about. The rest aren’t worth five minutes of thought between them.
9) Every winner is destined to be a loser in due course. It’s great to be up on the winner’s podium. Just don’t imagine you can stay there forever.
10) You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.
11) Everything takes twice as long as you plan for and produces results about half as good as you hoped.
12) People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them. A person who confides in you has usually confided in several others first—but not got the response they wanted. A loyal friend will stay loyal under enormous amounts of thoughtless abuse.

WISH + SUBJECT+WOULD

This structure is used to express dissatisfaction or irritation because somebody keeps on doing something that you don't like:

I wish he would stop smoking. (= I don't like it, I want him to change it)
I wish you would go away. (= I don't want you here, I want you to take some action)
I wish you wouldn't squeeze the toothpaste from the middle! (= I want you to change your habits.)

I wish you would/wouldn’t often functions like a polite imperative:

I wish you would be quiet.
I wish you wouldn't make so much noise.

All of these refer to something you wish would happen NOW or at some point in the FUTURE. HOWEVER, it sounds a little strange and unnatural to use the same construction when talking about yourself! "I wish I would..." just sounds wrong. In English, the closest "natural sounding" way of wishing something for YOURSELF is by using:

 "I WISH I COULD...":

For example:
Pink (“Who knew”):

I wish I could touch you again
I wish I could still call you a friend
I'd give anything…

So, we must use could and not would after I and We :

I wish I could be you.
If only we could be together
I wish I could swim.

Would expresses willingness, could expresses ability:

I wish he would come tomorrow (I don't know if he wants to)
I wish he could come tomorrow (I'm sure he can't)

Madonna in an interview to Us Weekly: "I wish Lourdes (her daughter) would dress more conservatively."
John Kerry: "I wish these voters would pay more attention."

In the song below will you recognize any I wish sentences?

And now why not share here what you wish you did or had done differently? Or maybe there’s something you wish somebody else would do differently or wouldn’t do at all?..